Zohran Mamdani Wants to Reclaim Efficiency From the Right

These “reforms” have predictably eroded the capacity of governments to carry out basic functions while increasing their dependence on profit-driven companies and contractors that often cost significantly more than government employees. […] contractors now outnumber federal employees by more than two to one (the size of the federal workforce has remained largely unchanged over the last half century, […])

Romania has its own version of this problem. The consultancy and contracting ecosystem around EU fund absorption in Romania is enormous, and there’s well-documented waste in how procurement operates at the local level.

The Bolojan government decided instead to cut teachers’ salaries and plunge a country that has been in permanent austerity since 1989 into even more austerity.

Again, not fully Bolojan’s fault, as adherence to EU’s strict Excessive Deficit Procedure is not optional (unless for war spending lmao), and Bolo’s top priority was avoiding EU sanctions and a sovereign credit downgrade to junk.

Regardless, I’m not surprised that Euroscepticism is blooming in Eastern Europe, with citizens being told they have to tighten the belt, but the state is allowed to boost defence spending only.